FACT SHEET. EXTENDED B2B MODULE Creating a customized experience with simplified ordering and reduced complexity.

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1 FACT SHEET EXTENDED B2B MODULE Creating a customized experience with simplified ordering and reduced complexity.

2 MAKE ORDERING EASIER AND SIMPLIFY THE OVERALL PROCESS THROUGH A SELF-SERVICE ONLINE TOOL Despite all the talk about customer experience and customer expectations, many B2B organizations are still not providing even the most basic experience online. Numerous B2B companies still invite their customers to place orders by fax (rather than by or through an online store). Those that don t have an online presence will need to catch up fast and gain knowledge and expertise in this area. It s not necessary to jump right in at the deep end by providing full e-commerce capabilities. Instead, start out with basic standard functionality, for instance, by helping customers find their way from a search engine to the online store. Once they get there, customers spend a lot of their time on the site looking for information, so having a search tool and a site that is easily navigable, plus providing extensive information, is critical. By getting these things right, B2B organizations will be able to easily move their customers from offline to online, thereby significantly reducing transaction costs and increasing labor productivity. In the B2C environment, merchants have gained a lot of experience by working with, enhancing, and optimizing their e-commerce platform and the user experience. It is important to understand the similarities between B2B and B2C organizations, as this will reveal capabilities and best practices that can be harnessed in B2B. However, it is also essential to recognize requirements that are unique to the B2B segment in order to address them efficiently, such as the complexity of B2B organizations, the variety of user roles, multi-step approval workflows, and lengthy purchase decisions that include several decision makers. Order Approval Quoting 2

3 INTERSHOP S SOLUTION As business buyers are now demanding a purchasing experience similar to that of individual consumers relevant content, userfriendly tools, and convenient ordering Intershop is offering a centralized commerce solution that allows merchants to manage both customer types and business models (e.g., B2B and B2C) via a single platform. Intershop s commerce capabilities, such as Search and Navigation, Web Content Management, Product Information Management, Checkout, Shopping Cart, Promotions, SEO, and others, can be applied to both B2B and B2C. Nevertheless, some requirements are unique to the B2B environment. In addition to the Intershop 7 Commerce platform, therefore, we have developed the Extended B2B Module to provide capabilities, such as Customized Catalogs and Pricing, B2B Customer Management, My B2B Account Dashboard, Quick Order, Order Templates, Order Approval, and Quoting, which are specific to the needs of B2B organizations. By implementing Intershop s Extended B2B Module, B2B merchants gain access to best-practice capabilities that cover all the standard B2B areas. The focus is very much on addressing specific challenges, such as the complex structure of a buyer s organization (e.g., different buyer roles, budgets, cost centers, approval workflow, etc.), different contracts, contract pricing, and custom catalogs that dictate the exact products business buyers are allowed to purchase. Using the Extended B2B Module, B2B merchants can restrict the view of the online store and its catalog by assigning specific roles and rights to business customers and their buyers. This way, the purchasing experience can be customized and narrowed to relevant content, data, and offerings. Role-based selfservice capabilities in the My Account dashboard allow business buyers to access order statuses, manage users and budgets, create order templates, place and check quotes, and trigger order approvals. [ Order Templates [ Quick Order 3

4 INTERSHOP S SOLUTION»Extended B2B Commerce provides extensive functionality to handle the unique requirements of B2B organizations. Business buyers can simply sign in, manage their profile and organization, shop catalogs, approve orders, manage budgets, request a quote, and check out in a few clicks. «4

5 KEY FEATURES Custom catalogs and pricing Business users can manage customer-specific catalog views and price lists. They can also integrate an external price provider that makes prices for products available. Customer management Account owners can manage their users via a self-service online tool. They can assign different roles buyer, approver, or account admin to users. A buyer is able to manage his or her own purchases and can create quotes. An approver can, in addition to the buyer s capabilities, approve pending orders. Finally, an account admin can add to and remove users from the customer, and also edit their profile information. Account admin has the right to assign a role and a budget to each user and has access to a User Overview list, which shows all users, their last login, their budget threshold, and the users roles. My Account dashboard Depending on the role, a business user receives a summarized overview and quick access to relevant details. A buyer can view his or her order statuses and amounts, budget settings, a list of order templates, different statuses, and the amounts of his or her quotes. An approver can easily check his or her pending items, orders awaiting approval, and orders that have been approved or rejected by the approver. Account admin has an overview widget covering all the customer s users and their budgets. Quick order A buyer can enter a product ID and the quantity required to create a quick order. He or she can also browse, upload, and add a CSV file containing product IDs and required item quantities. Order templates Order templates are beneficial for frequent purchasing of the same or similar products. This way, a buyer does not have to browse the product catalog each time when ordering goods. Buyers can create an empty order template and add products from a product details page. In addition they can add an order template from a shopping cart or from a past order. Order approval Account admin can define user budgets that represent order thresholds for each buyer on a per-order basis, or per month. Order approval can be triggered either automatically or manually. The order will be approved automatically if the order value does not exceed the budget limit. If the order exceeds the budget limit, the approver is notified and must manually approve or reject the order. When rejecting the order, the approver can provide reasons for the rejection. To view, approve, and reject pending orders, the B2B approver uses the corresponding self-service section in the My Account area of the B2B storefront. A buyer can see the approval status of the order in the My Account area. The order can be pending, approved, or rejected. If the order has been rejected, the buyer can also see the reason for the rejection. Quoting A buyer can request a quote for a current order. There is a comment area where the buyer can enter a reason for the request. The account manager on the merchant s side can decide whether to accept the quote or to propose another option. Improved order history Buyers can view a list of all past orders, including details like order summary, order processing status, payment, and shipping details, etc. Buyers can also search for a specific order from the order list. KEY BENEFITS Reduced transaction costs through automated order processing and approvals Increased labor productivity due to less faxing, ing, and fewer phone calls Large numbers of low-volume accounts can be handled efficiently Better tracking of buying and spending patterns Simplified price negotiations Spend more effort on building relationships, instead of manually processing transactions Quick registration and account management anytime, anywhere 5

6 SUCCESS STORIES Intershop is the largest independent provider of high-end Omni-Channel Commerce. Intershop solutions unleash your business by inspiring concepts, cutting-edge technology and the expertise grown over 20 years in e-commerce. Since 1992, Intershop has supported the international growth of e-commerce. Our exible and scalable e-commerce solutions enable companies worldwide to consolidate their multitouch-point operations on a single platform. Intershop provides a variety of services beyond software and consulting that enable its clients to leverage the full potential of multi-touchpoint commerce. For more information visit Intershop Communications AG Intershop Tower Jena Germany Phone: Telefax: info@intershop.com intershop.com 2014 Intershop Communications AG. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.